heinous

English

WOTD – 16 January 2010

Alternative forms

hainous (obsolete)

Etymology

From Middle English hainous, from Old French haïneus (compare French haineux) from haïr (“to hate”), hadir (“to hate”) (compare Old French en-hadir (“to become filled with hate”)), from Frankish *hattjan (“to hate”) (compare Middle English hetien). More at hate.

The fluctuation between pronunciations with /eɪ/ and /iː/ is old; the former reflects adoption of an unmonophthongised pronunciation of Old French -ai-, while the latter reflects a monophthongised form.^[1]^[2]^[3]

Pronunciation

(UK, US) IPA^(key): /ˈheɪnəs/
(UK) IPA^(key): /ˈhiːnəs/
Audio (UK): (file)
Audio (US): (file)
Audio (General Australian): (file)
Rhymes: -eɪnəs

Adjective

heinous (comparative more heinous, superlative most heinous)

Totally reprehensible.
I hope they catch the person responsible for that heinous crime.

The perpetrators of this heinous act must be brought to justice.
- 2021 October 12, Jamie Lyall, “Faroe Islands 0-1 Scotland”, in BBC Sport‎^[4]:
  Perhaps burdened by the weight of history, talk of the heinous 2-2 draw in 2002, or the magnitude of the fixture, Scotland seemed spooked in the early throes.
Bad, evil or villainous.

Synonyms

(totally reprehensible): abominable, horrible, odious

Antonyms

unheinous (rare)

Derived terms

Related terms

hate

Collocations

with nouns

heinous crime
heinous act
heinous sin
heinous murder
heinous offence

Translations

totally reprehensible

Armenian: զզվելի (hy) (zzveli), նողկալի (hy) (noġkali), գարշելի (hy) (garšeli), անպետք (hy) (anpetkʻ), սարսափելի (hy) (sarsapʻeli), զարհուրելի (hy) (zarhureli)
Bulgarian: отвратителен (bg) (otvratitelen), гнусен (bg) (gnusen)
Czech: ohavný, odporný (cs)
Danish: afskyelig (da), frygtelig, grufuld, motbydelig
Dutch: afschuwelijk (nl), afgrijselijk (nl), afschrikwekkend (nl), verschrikkelijk (nl), verwerpelijk (nl)
Faroese: andstyggiligur
Finnish: katala (fi), kauhea (fi), hirvittävä (fi)
French: atroce (fr)
Galician: atroz (gl)
German: abscheulich (de), verabscheuungswürdig (de)
Greek: στυγερός (el) m (stygerós), αποτρόπαιος (el) m (apotrópaios), απεχθής (el) m (apechthís), μισητός (el) m (misitós)
Hungarian: förtelmes (hu), szörnyű (hu)
Icelandic: viðbjóðslegur (is)
Italian: efferato (it), abominevole (it), odioso (it)
Kazakh: жексұрын (jeksūryn), пасық (pasyq)
Māori: whakarihariha, mōrihariha
Norwegian:
Bokmål: avskyelig, motbydelig (no)

Nynorsk: avskyeleg
Portuguese: hediondo (pt)
Russian: гну́сный (ru) (gnúsnyj), ме́рзкий (ru) (mérzkij), отврати́тельный (ru) (otvratítelʹnyj)
Spanish: atroz (es)
Swedish: avskyvärd (sv), vedervärdig (sv), förfärlig (sv), ohygglig (sv), skändlig (sv)
Ukrainian: жахли́вий m (žaxlývyj), оги́дний (uk) m (ohýdnyj), мерзе́нний m (merzénnyj)

References

^ Dobson, E[ric] J. (1957), English pronunciation 1500-1700‎^[1], second edition, volume II: Phonology, Oxford: Clarendon Press, published 1968, →OCLC, § 131 (b), page 650.
^ Jordan, Richard (1974), Eugene Crook, transl., Handbook of the Middle English Grammar: Phonology (Janua Linguarum. Series Practica; 218)‎^[2], The Hague: Mouton & Co. N.V., →DOI, § 233, page 213.
^ Luick, Karl (1929-1940), Herbert Wild, Friedrich Koziol, editors, Historische Grammatik der englischen Sprache‎^[3], Erster Band, II. Abteilung, Leipzig: Bernhard Tauchnitz, published 1940, →OCLC, § 516, page 634.

Anagrams

in house, in-house, inhouse

[1] Dobson, E[ric] J. (1957), English pronunciation 1500-1700‎^[1], second edition, volume II: Phonology, Oxford: Clarendon Press, published 1968, →OCLC, § 131 (b), page 650.

[2] Jordan, Richard (1974), Eugene Crook, transl., Handbook of the Middle English Grammar: Phonology (Janua Linguarum. Series Practica; 218)‎^[2], The Hague: Mouton & Co. N.V., →DOI, § 233, page 213.

[3] Luick, Karl (1929-1940), Herbert Wild, Friedrich Koziol, editors, Historische Grammatik der englischen Sprache‎^[3], Erster Band, II. Abteilung, Leipzig: Bernhard Tauchnitz, published 1940, →OCLC, § 516, page 634.

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